Ted Nugent: 2012 in Review

It’s been an interesting year for Ted Nugent, who turns 64 today (Dec. 13). In honor of the “Motor City Madman” turning another year older, we’re reflecting on the events that kept the guitarist, both musically and personally, in the headlines this past year.

Musically it was a solid year for the entertainer. Nugent would spend a good portion of the summer on tour with REO Speedwagon and Styx. Touring with the latter band allowed Nugent the opportunity to share the stage with Tommy Shaw, his onetime bandmate in Damn Yankees, as the pair reunited on the song ‘Coming of Age.’

The guitarist also began 2012 with a guest cameo on ‘The Simpsons,’ where he entered the political fray at the advising and support of Homer Simpson. From there, his song ‘Stranglehold’ would turn up in a Volkswagen commercial, and later in the year, he would be chosen by MLive! as Detroit’s greatest guitarist, besting Jack White, Marshall Crenshaw and Wayne Kramer in a Detroit-area poll.

The year also found Nugent exploring his passion for hunting. He kicked off 2012 by offering up his own brand of hunting ammunition supplies. As expected, his hunting and outdoors passions would continue throughout the year, often in headline-making ways. In May, Nugent would plead guilty to an illegal bear kill in Alaska that occurred during the filming of his 2009 series, ‘Spirit of the Wild.’ The rocker violated the Alaska restrictions by bagging one bear after wounding another. He was fined $10,000 by the federal government and an additional $600 by the state of Alaska. Also, in response to his actions, Nugent filmed a PSA about hunting laws.

In August, he appeared on ‘Pigman: The Series‘ in a graphic episode in which he and the show’s host took the air in a helicopter with a fully-operational machine gun helping to thin the overpopulation of feral hogs in an episode titled ‘Aporkalypse Now.’ In September, Nugent would do something a little more family-friendly by staging his third annual Kamp for Kids in which he taught youngsters about great outdoor activities like archery, air rifles, trap shooting and more. The rocker would return to the airwaves in October with his Discovery Channel series, ‘Gun Country.’

Speaking of guns, Nugent voiced his displeasure after NBC’s Sunday Night Football host Bob Costas offered a commentary denounced guns following the murder-suicide of a Kansas City Chiefs football player. Nugent opined, “We thought Bob Costas was smarter than that. Only fools blame tools instead of human failings.” He would later add, “Bob Costas has clearly lost his mind. Inanimate objects are the problem. Not murderers. Brilliant.”

The outspoken musician also had an interesting on-air moment while appearing on ‘CBS This Morning.’ During an interview segment that was otherwise tame, the guitarist delivered an off-color rant when questioned about being a moderate politically. Nugent offered that those who investigate him determine that he’s “a damned nice guy,” before turning to the male reporter and off-screen female producer and exclaiming, “If you can find a screening process more powerful than that, I’ll suck your d— … or I’ll f— you, how’s that sound?”

On the political front, the singer definitely didn’t hold back. In April, “The Nuge” was dropped from a Fort Knox concert after making comments that he would be dead or in jail if Barack Obama was re-elected and he stated that he was looking forward to “chopping their heads off in November.” He would later attempt to clarify the comments, but it still earned him a visit from the Secret Service. After the meeting, they deemed he was not a threat to Obama.

Nugent, obviously, threw his support behind presidential nominee Mitt Romney stating that, “Obama represents everything bad about humanity and Romney pretty much everything that is good.” After Obama was re-elected in November, Nugent lashed out by calling those who voted for the incumbent “soulless fools” who “just voted for economic and spiritual suicide.” Obama wasn’t his only political target, as the singer wrote an op-ed piece in July calling Chief Justice John Roberts “a traitor” and “a turncoat” for declaring that the Obamacare health care plan was constitutional.

The other Nugent headline this year actually didn’t feature the outspoken rocker, but rather his drummer. Mick Brown had a fun night out that resulted in his arrest in July after allegedly taking a golf cart for a drunken spin. He initially pled “not guilty” in August to the DUI charge, but eventually accepted a plea deal in November in return for dropping the theft, assault and public endangerment charges.

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